Esure founder Peter Wood set for £200m Easter float windfall

Esure founder Peter Wood is set for a £200m windfall after confirming months of speculation that the insurance giant is planning an Easter float with a valuation of £1billion.

Around 1,000 staff at the firm, best known for its ‘calm down dear – it’s only a commercial’ catchphrase, also stand to share £3million of free shares when the business comes to the London Market by the end of next month.

Wood used a bumper set of full-year results to set out plans, revealed in the Daily Mail yesterday, to float up to 50 per cent of esure - which also owns Sheilas’ Wheels and co-owns the Go Compare website.

Insurance payout: Founder Peter Wood is likely to make £200million following the planned esure float

He will reduce his holding from around 50 per cent to 30 per cent, along with private equity firm Tosca Penta, which will also dilute its stake.

The float will raise £50million which will be used to eliminate the firm’s debt pile.

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It is coming to market as the London
exchange benefits from a renewed period of optimism following years in
the doldrums in the wake of the financial crisis.

Earlier this month housebuilder Crest
Nicholson returned to the stock market just weeks after rival Direct
Line, also founded by Wood, completed a well-received float.

Estate agent Countrywide is also preparing for a London offering to investors.

Wood said: ‘An IPO is a natural next
step for a business of esure’s scale and prospects. Our record of
outperformance is down to our understanding of risk, our conservative
underwriting approach and our speed in reacting to change.’

The business was founded in 2000,
backed by the Halifax which later became part of Lloyds Banking Group.
Wood staged a management buyout three years ago, buying back the 70 per
cent stake, valuing the firm at the time at £260million.